Thirteen was a lucky year for the annual Beat Beethoven 5-kilometer race held Saturday on campus.

More than 600 people signed up for the race that began in front of the Patty Center.

"If you can run a 5K in 30 minutes you're in business," said Eduard Zilberkant, who had the job of signaling the start of the race.

A 2003 recording of Beethoven's "5th Symphony" performed by the Arctic Chamber Orchestra set the pace of the race. Also setting the pace was Steve Bainbridge, dressed as Ludwig van Beethoven.

Bainbridge, the Equinox Marathon race director, has run in the Beat Beethoven race three times. This is his second year as Beethoven.

"It's hot," he said when asked about his costume, which included a top hat, wig, sport jacket, dress shirt and long pants.

Bainbridge runs 20 to 30 miles per week and said it was challenging to stick to the pace of the race.

"I was nervous that I'd go too fast," he said, adding that he was wearing two watches in case one failed.

Racers who beat the Beethoven runner and finished before the final note of the symphony was playedgot a voucher for a free ticket to performance by the Arctic Chamber Orchestra or the Fairbanks Symphony Association. The top male and female finisher received two tickets to the Fairbanks Sympony Pops Concert on April 28.

Ingrid Olson topped the women's times with 20 minutes, 44.8 seconds. Brandon Newbould took first in the men's bracket with 16:26.6.

Three hundred and forty-seven people beat Beethoven this year, including 23-year-old Larsen Hess.

"Beethoven was one second behind us," said Hess, a natural resources management major.

Hess said he didn't train at all for the race because he only decided to compete the day before.

"I finished and didn't die," said UAF employee Pamm Hubbard, 36.

This was Hubbard's first 5-kilometer race, and her goal was to finish in less than 45 minutes.

"I'm glad it's not snowing," she said with a laugh when asked about the weather.

She added that the weather forecast on Friday was not very promising.

"It's great, the sun came out," said 58-year-old Mary Lynch, who came in as the 258th woman.

Lynch, an Alaska Fire Service employee, walked the course with two of her coworkers in just under 48 minutes.

Chancellor Steve Jones and his wife, Judy, stood outside of the Moore-Bartlett-Skarland Complex cheering encouragement to the racers that had just past the halfway point in the race.

The 3.1-mile course begins at the Patty Center on lower campus and heads up the hill in front of the Butrovich Building.

Racers then travel between Arctic Health and the Geophysical Institute and then back onto Yukon Drive in front of the UA Museum of the North.

After heading down Yukon Drive, past MBS and through faculty housing where they pass the two-mile point, the course swings to the right on Tanana Loop on the east end of campus.

The final stretch is a straightaway after the Bunnell Building, back to the Patty Center.

At the finish line, tables were set up with water, oranges and other foodstuffs. Volunteers from Running Club North helped the 575 finishers get into a line and write down their race placement.

For more information about the race check out: http://www.fairbankssymphony.org/.